Lead Me From My Solitude
by jenny.oliver
Summary: A Spanish ballerina, Mirabella, comes to the Opera To help M. Giry with her ballerinas. We follow Mirabella and the happenings at the Opera Populaire. What has happened to the phantom? Both ALW and Leroux inspired.R&R REWRITE POSSIBLE!


_**So I am thinking about resurrecting this story, which is going to be a little difficult because the journal with all of my info about this story is a couple thousand miles away at my house…so for the next little while I was thinking about just reworking the chapters that are already posted…idk.**_

Lead Me From My Solitude

Prologue:

_The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last. – Oscar Wilde_

Mirabella Beauvais took in a sharp breath of astonishment as her carriage approached the Opera Populaire on the cloudy winter morning. The opera was covered with scorch marks and surrounded with scaffolding filled with painters, sculptors, carpenters and others working with rapid agility. They were trying to recover the damage that had occurred to the Paris Opera House during an opera that had gone terribly wrong. Behind all the burns and missing sculptures from the tragic fire, Mirabella could picture the beauty that had once been the Opera Populaire. All of the workers were hurrying about their jobs, knowing that they had only a short amount of time before the next opera would be preformed and that the opera house had to be ready.

Mirabella was arriving at the Opera Populaire to apply for a job to assist Madame Giry as a ballet instructor. Her sister, Charlotte, had already been employed at the Opera Populaire for two months and was now trying to help Mirabella to acquire a job at the opera as well.

Mirabella had only recently found out that she had a sister and was ecstatic that she would have the opportunity to spend time with her. It was good to be close by. This opportunity would give her a chance to fulfill her dream and to get to know her sister.

Mirabella was born and raised in Spain where her father met and fell in love with her mother. Her mother had died when Mirabella was four and her father, a French baron, moved back to his homeland of France while she stayed in Spain to be raised by her grandmother. It was a mutual agreement that Mirabella stay in her home of Spain since her father wanted to move back to France. Mirabella had only arrived in Paris a few months ago to live with her father.

Mirabella bore a strong resemblance to her mother. At twenty-eight, she still had a striking appearance. Her long dark tresses were cut just below her waist, and her dark eyes were set off by her nearly flawless olive skin. Mirabella was five foot five and had lost the stick thin figure of a fragile ballerina when she stopped dancing ten years prior.

Charlotte had arrived at the Opera Populaire six months after the incident which involved Christine Daaé and the "phantom". Charlotte told Mirabella all about the gossip that she had heard from the corps de ballet; the tale of how the Phantom abducted Christine Daaé and then let her go and live with the Vicomte de Chagny. Christine was now married to the Vicomte, which made her a very powerful woman, while the Phantom was hunted down and killed. The managers had made sure that he was dead.

Mirabella could hardly believe this when her younger sister told her the story. She learned early that Charlotte could be very gullible and it was a possibility that she mixed up fact with myth. Some things that she had said about the "phantom" seemed too absurd. But Charlotte was helping Mirabella secure a position at the opera house, so she went along with the stories her sister shared with her. They were, after all entertaining.

Charlotte's job was to apply makeup and hair to the performers; she also gave a helping hand to the seamstresses whenever she was available. When she heard that Madame Giry would be looking for help with the ballet classes once the opera house opened again, she immediately sent word to her sister, asking if she was interested in the position and begging her to apply. Mirabella replied with an eagerness that enchanted the managers at the opera house. Mirabella was hopeful that this job would keep her busy enough to forget what had made her leave her beloved Spain.

The carriage drew nearer to the Paris Opera House and Mirabella saw her younger sister standing on the curbside, talking to a charming young man. Mirabella raised an eyebrow as she watched her half-sister twirl her chestnut locks around her fingers and laugh flirtatiously with the young man. But as soon as Charlotte noticed her sister's carriage approach, she abruptly left her awestruck admirer and hurried over to greet Mirabella. As the door to the carriage opened, Mirabella felt the wind bite at her checks and nose. She deftly stepped out of the carriage and into Charlotte's warm and welcoming embrace.

"I can hardly believe that you are finally here, Bella," Charlotte said, her voice full of pure and hopeful excitement.

"Well let's hope that I will be staying here for a while. My ballet is a little rusty. I haven't danced in ten years, Charlotte," replied an anxious Mirabella, with a hint of her Spanish accent.

"Oh sweetie, don't be nervous. You are definitely going to get this job. You have to! How could they say no? Plus, you have me to brag about how well trained you are," Charlotte said with a mischievous grin.

"Let's hope you haven't gone overboard on the bragging," replied the nervous Spanish girl.

Both girls gathered up Mirabella's few bags in their arms and walked to the opera house. At the last moment, Charlotte said over her shoulder to her now forgotten admirer, "Sorry, darling, but I must go. It was lovely chatting with you, though."

_**Here is my first Phan Phic. I have been working so long on it and wasn't sure when the right time to post it would be, but I think that now is as good as ever. I hope you like it. Thank you to Sandi my beta, your corrections were greatly appreciated (sorry it took so long to update). Read and review, it keeps me happy, like pie...pie is good. Anyway, I would love to hear what you think about it. Any helpful words would be greatly appreciated.**_

_**So I am kind of going through a "what was I thinking" moment. I wrote this story with Bella and Charlotte being aristocrats, but then stooping to find a job with the opera house…didn't think that one through…I am however determined to make it work. Any ideas????**_


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